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I browsed through Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook looking for ideas for testing treats for my students this year. I knew that I didn't want candy, but I did want something that was a) gluten-free and b) something that could potentially double as breakfast for students who didn't take the time to eat before coming to school (for one reason or another).

After not seeing much that satisfied both criteria, I headed to the grocery store to wander the aisles. Luckily, the cereal aisle had a bunch of options that would work. I surveyed the shelves and chose three cereals with names that would lend themselves to some sort of cheesy pun that my fifth graders would either think was a) funny/clever or b) so lame that rolling their eyes would cause them to pull an ocular muscle. (I ended up buying Chex, Cheerios and Lucky Charms if you can't tell from the picture. A few days later, I remembered that we had four days of testing, so I quick ran to the store for fruit snacks.)

Now, as cute as all of those individual bags with their bag toppers were, I knew that I had no chance of accomplishing such a feat in one night. (Did I mention that I waited until the last minute?) If I did devote my night to it, I knew that I would be completely discouraged when the students looked at it for maybe five seconds before tearing into it. So the idea of just making one sign was born.

Also, I decided to go with paper bowls instead of paper cups or Ziploc bags for a few reasons. I couldn't justify using so many Ziploc bags during Earth Day week, and I knew that paper cups would be spilled in 0.2 seconds. Bowls would be reusable and less likely to tip. (This ended up being a pretty decent plan.)

For setup, I just put the students' numbers on the bowls, dumped in the cereal, and arranged my bowls around the sign. Students took the bowls and returned them to the table for the next day. Easy. Stress-free.

If you would like the set of signs that I used, please click any of the images below!

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